I’m not worried about the center situation at all, they already found an arrangement that works, and it’ll probably only get better this coming season. One of the strongest center lineups in the league - neither of them are Jokic or Embiid, but they’re both better than whoever the backup centers for the Nuggets and Sixers are.
Yeah, Gafford came in cold, not knowing the system. Now he has a complete offseason and a full 82 game season to get acclimated to his role off the bench. Considdering he will play a lot of minutes with Marshall/Grimes/Maxi off the bench, he has tons of help defensively as well. I have no concerns whatsover if it comes to Gafford.
No joke. They did that with a new guy to the team from the trade deadline. The other was a rookie figure himself out and going through some serious family shit. I picked up that rookies jersey, guarante, that dude will be nice.
It hilarious when people compare our centers to jokic, embiid and even victor and chet. Why? Because none of those 4 guys even play their center rolls. 😂
@@Smido83 He was ranked number one in the entire league for postseason blocks with 33. In fact, the Mavericks took up almost half of the top 10 list with 4 players.
No it’s definitely about luka maturing. He has the past few seasons and he still needs to continue to do so many aspects of his game could see improvement but mavs aren’t far and I still believe they are the best team in the west
The issue was team offense. Stop blaming all the Mavs shortcomings against the Celtics on Luka. The percentage the Mavs took shooting-wise was abysmal the Celtic took advantage of that. Leaving open shooters to blitz Luka. And then you barely criticized Kyrie when clearly he disapeared in the finals.
I’ll never understand it , the media sure acts like they did not see the other Mavs throwing up bricks! Irving only showed up in two games. I am just happy Luka did not play in the Olympics . He will be ready to go for the start of the season .
You know he did that (blaming Luka for that final) ? Because it was the easy way. It shows low level of analyzis when you just say, Luka was terrible in D (which wasn't true at all).
@@tahinarajaobelina2486 if Luka is such a cancer why do the lakers have a stupid plan already to try and sign him already ? The guy speaking in the video is a laker licker. Can’t be satisfied with the so called king of basketball
@@tahinarajaobelina2486it just was true. Watch the series again luka was a come and gave up so many free points and processions you can’t take a second off in a finals game and he did
@@lizzog4553 if 2-3 blow-by and some free points makes you a bad defensive player, then "every" player in NBA are bad defensive player. The thing you seems not to understant is that defense is a team performance. And if the team shows good performances in D against the C's, Luka take part of it (and he has more than a decent stats in D during the finals). And BTW, if you watched the finals, you should have noticed that the lack of help on offense had more impact on the final result than the so-called No-D Luka.
Luka had a great all around defensive year before he got injured right before the playoffs. Statistically he was the 9th best ISO Defender and legitimately top 2-3 best PG defender all season long. You can tell it just got too much that he had to take painkiller injections before each game, he needed to conserve energy more than ever too to facilitate and score so he had to rely on team defense but Boston was just too good. If Dallas had faced a team like the 2023 heat and not a literal superteam they would’ve won but they lost so the narrative shifted again and just blamed it all on Lukas defense when his literal teammates couldn’t make shots to save their lives and choked!
Defensive statistics are meaningless because if a guy gets by you, the guy who tries to help gets punished with the de-ranking. That said, I agree he was much better this year defensively and he used his height to be a real problem for teams on the perimeter, and caused some havoc in the paint as well. It's Kidd's fault for not making a defensive adjustment to deal with Brown and Tatum going at him. You leave an injured player (who is your ONLY offensive weapon) out there on an island and even complain he should be doing more, and you deserve the L you got. Never forget that in a series where nobody could score other than Luka and a diminished Kyrie, Kidd chose to limit the minutes of Green, Hardy, and Exum, who all shot better than anyone else on the team (other than Luka). Losing 2 games by 7 points and you leave a guy shooting 70% on the bench? WT actual Fuck???
@@SDesWriter Yeah, I think smart opponents will try and have their offense go through Luka because that will tire him out more so of course the Mavs need to have a defensive solution to that! I also think it's ridiculous to expect much more from Luka, he is a certain type of player and his focus is offense; the defensive side is gonna have to be on the others. Maybe Klay can teach Luka some discipline and tricks for perimeter defense! :) Luka doesn't need to be a chase down blocker but just improve a little more lateral movement maybe.
When people insist he was not _very_ injured heading into the finals, I'm usually quick to remind them the last team that refused to double or blitz a healthy Luka for close to an entire game was the Hawks on jan 24th, LOL. Sure, Celtics are a WAY better defensive team and would never have allowed even 50+ points without taking effective action -- the ultimate proof of how badly injured he was is precisely the fact they actually _didn't need_ to. There's just so much you can do when you're dragging yourself around and your teammates are choking on offense, so it's REALLY unfair to blame the fiasco on his defense in particular. Also, he did play good enough D in previous series when they absolutely needed it, but playing through injuries makes them pile up and escalate; finals are the last of 4 series, plus it was against a superteam. Luka's so good people hold him against impossible standards just so they can claim he failed.
@@SDesWriterreally meaningless.Deflecting and stealing the ball ...just meaningless.% of player going pass luka ....meaningless because you have a narrative...smart😊
@@RobMoreno-mw5uq yes, defensive statistics are meaningless. People are rated high in defensive statistics who are bad defensive players and great defensive players are ranked low by the statistics. The way they’re determined makes them meaningless and if you knew anything about the game you would understand. Ask yourself if a player loses his defensive assignments and that offensive players scores on his teammates who is trying to help, which player gets the negative points against his defensive rating? Once you have the answer to that question, you can stop bothering me about a meaningless statistic. The eye test and opinions of other players are the only meaningful defenses statistic.
You're high AF if you think Boston "exposed" his defense. Boston averaged 101ppg (20 below their season average), and Tatum & Brown (The two guys exposing Luka) scored 23 & 21 respectively. Meanwhile, Boston (considered the best defensive team in the league) "held" an injured Luka to 29/10/6 (so Tatum and Brown combined outscored him by 14 points). Luka's defense was fine. He had a sprained knee, so quicker players went around him, but Dallas' defense held and they forced 3pt shots with a hand in people's faces which led to Boston shooting 33% from the 3pt line and most of their problems scoring. The series ended with Boston outscoring Dallas 508 - 496. 2 of the 4 wins were by 7 (with the games being down to a 1 possession under 2 minutes). If the starting SF had been able to score more than 7ppg (while being dared to shoot by Boston giving them open looks), Dallas could have won either or both close games. The 1st game was out of reach due to the 1st quarter surge with Porzingas on the court. In the second game, he made no difference before he was injured (most likely on a free throw where he and Lively bumped knees) so there's no reason to believe his absence caused a large falloff for the Celtics. The series was all about Jones (7ppg), Washington (11ppg), Gafford (8ppg), Lively (6ppg), and everyone else being worse. To complete the shitshow, Kidd chose the Finals as the time to hide Green, Exum, and Hardy on the bench, despite them having the best shooting numbers of anyone not named "Doncic" (or the centers, who scored all but 3 of their points on dunks). Defense was just the media and casuals (Luka haters) way of diminishing what he can and had done. The only player in recent memory who played the entire playoffs severely injured for his team, and was penalized for it despite leading all teams in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Fuck anyone complaining about his defense. You don't know anything about basketball.
The Mavs need Luka to be closer to 100% healthy going into the Playoffs this season. He gutted it out and performed well enough, but he wasn't moving like he had been in February and March of that year.
I feel like unless people have watched the mavs really all season but also the playoff run they don’t realize the impact kyrie has. The playoff run was great and still very underrated.
We lost the finals because of offense. You can’t expect Luka to carry the entire offensive load AND get back on defense. Luka defends just fine when he’s not exhausting himself on the offensive end.
People were expecting him to get back and play defense while he was hurt very badly. Any Medical staff would’ve slide lined there star player for a minimum of two weeks, in Luka’s case he completely refused and kept playing, gritting his teeth fighting through the pain. It’s truly remarkable he was even able to slide his feet at all with busted up bloodied knees.
I think the biggest worry is that DJ was replaced by Klay. Kidd is going to have to figure out rotations to where we aren’t at a defensive loss in the starting lineup. Maybe Kyrie gets pulled on the first dead ball or something.
I will not be surprised if Luka drops beneath 30 ppg -- with a reasonable usage rate for the first time since his rookie season --, leads the league in assists and maybe averages a triple double. That's what I'm looking forward to upon adding Klay and re-signing Dinwiddie. If Luka stays healthy, Lively takes a significant offensive leap (not necessarily a huge one) and PJ improves his 3pt shooting to a steady 36% with some 40% from the corner, then it should be lights out, at least in the West.
Every starter on Boston are star players and even there supporting cast is good It’s just weird bcuz this is the most rounded good players on a team ever it was crazy just seeing a year ago everyone thinking it’s just a duo and comparing the duo to Luka and kyrie then u look at all the other players and realize Boston ain’t going anywhere unless injuries happen
lively is a dunk and defense guy, he don't rly have a refined iso ball skills.If he develops a 3 point ball that is different. His minutes are perfect splitting with gaf imo.
He showed GREAT flashes of being much more than that. And knowing he has top class attitude and is a smart dude, his ceiling today with Luka looks reeeeally high.
Its ridiculous to blame the loss on luka. The rest of the team where throwing bricks even kyrie was mediocre on the finals. Now with klay things could get bette.
2:40 Said in 2024: “With the Mavericks back in the Finalsnfor the first time since 2022…” You realise that means they missed one year in the Conference Finals right? They’ve played in the WC Finals twice in three years 😂
Nice to NOT mention PJ Washington shooting 47% from 3 and averaging more points than Kyrie in the thunder series, which clearly is the everyday performance for him.
It's also not everyday that PJ is left that wide open, that consistently. The Thunder chose to not even attempt to closeout on wide open Threes when PJ was shooting from the corner, and they paid the price for it. Those were practice shots, and most NBA players can hit a pretty decent percentage from 3PT with nobody guarding them.
Do you just maybe think it was because thunder’s gameplan was to double team and blitz Kyrie for the entire series?🤔, Kyrie sacrificed his production that series and was a good playmaker and passer that series and he put the thunder defense in scrambling situations and constantly had them in rotation.
Luka played great defense the majority of the playoffs!?! Bad Coaching is the only channel that looked at every game. All the other channels and pundits just went with the same old narrative!!!
Luka 's level is not the question. This dude is the best player in the world and it is hardly close. Both of his competitors have a fatal flaw: 1. Jokic is a center and is limited in ball handling which requires him to have a murray who can close the really tight games for him. 2. Giannis is already a legend, but his bag and his shot hold him back. It is what it is. Build that wall and hope it works. Luka doesn't have any of these issues. He has not even entered his prime yet and ever since his second season it was clear that it is his league, and people are just waiting to admit it. If they are healthy this season, nobody can beat them in the playoffs.
Isolation play of Dallas doesnt win against Celtics... Celtics the best tree point shooting team in nba,, they just need to play good ball movements to be able to execute good offence...Dallas offence rellies on luka or kyre's isolation play...but no match for Celtics..
There's so many great players in nba that never to have championship... Including STEVE NASH,, REGGIE MILLER, CHARLES BARKLEY, CHRIS PAUL, PAUL GEORGE, JAMES HARDEN,, RUSSEL WESTBROOK...WHAT DO YOU THINK THE REASON WHY THESE GREAT PLAYERS DIDNT WON CHAMPIONSHIP?
Dude... Dallas created more open 3's then the Celtics in the finals, but shot them under 20% (not counting the blowout win). That was the by far biggest problem. Not to mention that Kyrie was completely off in the 3 Boston games. But that wasnt because of the Boston defense or Dallas gameplan... it was in Kyries head. If he gets his head right playing in Boston, this series wouldve looked WAY different as well. Sorry, but its clear you dont know much about basketball. Cause yes Boston won this fair and square. But Iso offense had nothing to do with it. Cause its also true that everyone on Dallas played well under their normal average, and the Boston defense wasnt the main reason why. Luka was injured, Kyrie had a mental blockade and the role players werent hitting anything from 3. Now they added a 3P sniper who will change how Boston can defend. They sagged off of DJJ to crowd the paint and stop the Luka/Kyrie and Lively/Gafford P&R. Will they be able to do the same with Thompson being out there instead of DJJ taking 6-9 3's per game?
@@SurprisedAlpineSkiing-fg5mo Mostly running into all time Super teams, bad injury luck, or just being stuck on a team that wasnt good enough... whats your point?
The Celtics just have too many good and versatile players that can shoot, defend, and create. Dallas closed the gap a little with their off-season moves, but only time will tell if it will be enough. Luka also wasn't able to play at his MVP level due to injuries... if he's closer to 100% for the playoffs in this coming season then that also helps to close the gap a little more.
We should get rid of conference division in playoffs. How is it fair for Mavericks to had to get past 3 of the top 5 best teams of the season meanwhile Boston faced zero top 5 ranking teams. Getting tired of this east conference beach walks every year when 90% of best players are in the west. The west team will always be more banged up coming into the finals
Mavs lost because they ran into the better team the narrative Luka carries the mavs is ridiculous mavs have a good team it was a massacre on the west Celtics are a different beast
Interesting that you didn't watch the finals but the NBA media's coverage.The reason Mavs lost was Luka's defense? Why ain't you talking about Mavs offense in the finals? Especially Kyrie's
I don't disagree with anything you said but I just wanna make the point luka got knocked out in the first round of the play offs by the clippers. Getting over that hump is only a positive but let's be fair the clippers roughed him up bad and he never looked himself after that'll series he had blood pouring out of his knees and his numbers were well below average. He hobbled into the final and the celtics were fresh and a bad match up. I can only hope the players we brought in are able to improve the team but I'm not convinced
every game Boston won in the finals had been blow out so saying Dallas could have won with better Luka is just beyond stupid because difference in quality between these two teams had been obvious especially with role players. Tatum didn`t have great series also so using this "with better Luka Dallas could have won" we can use in Tatum case also and they were playing without Porzingis what is even worst for Dallas. People like you make videos to feel smarter but in reality watching this is just wasting time
Imagine if Luka actually played any defense… but then again he’s white. Other than Caruso you can’t name one that is good on that end. Not athletic enough
Still skilled than most of black players. And you had actually watched some basketball games, you would have found out that Luka is actually a positive defender
Dallas Overrated, They Got Lucky They Made It All The Way To The Finals, No Real Offense On That Team Outside Of Luka And Kyrie, Klay Is A Hit Or Miss With His Current Form. Grimes, Marshall,Hardy Are Good But Won’t Play More Then 20 Mins A Game Off The Bench
I’m not worried about the center situation at all, they already found an arrangement that works, and it’ll probably only get better this coming season. One of the strongest center lineups in the league - neither of them are Jokic or Embiid, but they’re both better than whoever the backup centers for the Nuggets and Sixers are.
Yeah, Gafford came in cold, not knowing the system. Now he has a complete offseason and a full 82 game season to get acclimated to his role off the bench. Considdering he will play a lot of minutes with Marshall/Grimes/Maxi off the bench, he has tons of help defensively as well. I have no concerns whatsover if it comes to Gafford.
No joke. They did that with a new guy to the team from the trade deadline. The other was a rookie figure himself out and going through some serious family shit. I picked up that rookies jersey, guarante, that dude will be nice.
It hilarious when people compare our centers to jokic, embiid and even victor and chet. Why? Because none of those 4 guys even play their center rolls. 😂
@@Smido83 He was ranked number one in the entire league for postseason blocks with 33. In fact, the Mavericks took up almost half of the top 10 list with 4 players.
It's not about Luka improving. It's about how the rest of the Dallas Mavericks improve and help Luka carry the load both offensively and defensively
No it’s definitely about luka maturing. He has the past few seasons and he still needs to continue to do so many aspects of his game could see improvement but mavs aren’t far and I still believe they are the best team in the west
@@lizzog4553at first, I didn't agree with with you, then I thought about it, and I agree now. Thanks for changing my mind! Great comment my friend 😊
If Mavs had Klay last season, it woulda been a ring.
The issue was team offense. Stop blaming all the Mavs shortcomings against the Celtics on Luka. The percentage the Mavs took shooting-wise was abysmal the Celtic took advantage of that. Leaving open shooters to blitz Luka. And then you barely criticized Kyrie when clearly he disapeared in the finals.
I’ll never understand it , the media sure acts like they did not see the other Mavs throwing up bricks! Irving only showed up in two games. I am just happy Luka did not play in the Olympics . He will be ready to go for the start of the season .
You know he did that (blaming Luka for that final) ? Because it was the easy way. It shows low level of analyzis when you just say, Luka was terrible in D (which wasn't true at all).
@@tahinarajaobelina2486 if Luka is such a cancer why do the lakers have a stupid plan already to try and sign him already ? The guy speaking in the video is a laker licker. Can’t be satisfied with the so called king of basketball
@@tahinarajaobelina2486it just was true. Watch the series again luka was a come and gave up so many free points and processions you can’t take a second off in a finals game and he did
@@lizzog4553 if 2-3 blow-by and some free points makes you a bad defensive player, then "every" player in NBA are bad defensive player.
The thing you seems not to understant is that defense is a team performance. And if the team shows good performances in D against the C's, Luka take part of it (and he has more than a decent stats in D during the finals).
And BTW, if you watched the finals, you should have noticed that the lack of help on offense had more impact on the final result than the so-called No-D Luka.
Luka had a great all around defensive year before he got injured right before the playoffs. Statistically he was the 9th best ISO Defender and legitimately top 2-3 best PG defender all season long. You can tell it just got too much that he had to take painkiller injections before each game, he needed to conserve energy more than ever too to facilitate and score so he had to rely on team defense but Boston was just too good. If Dallas had faced a team like the 2023 heat and not a literal superteam they would’ve won but they lost so the narrative shifted again and just blamed it all on Lukas defense when his literal teammates couldn’t make shots to save their lives and choked!
Defensive statistics are meaningless because if a guy gets by you, the guy who tries to help gets punished with the de-ranking. That said, I agree he was much better this year defensively and he used his height to be a real problem for teams on the perimeter, and caused some havoc in the paint as well. It's Kidd's fault for not making a defensive adjustment to deal with Brown and Tatum going at him. You leave an injured player (who is your ONLY offensive weapon) out there on an island and even complain he should be doing more, and you deserve the L you got. Never forget that in a series where nobody could score other than Luka and a diminished Kyrie, Kidd chose to limit the minutes of Green, Hardy, and Exum, who all shot better than anyone else on the team (other than Luka). Losing 2 games by 7 points and you leave a guy shooting 70% on the bench? WT actual Fuck???
@@SDesWriter Yeah, I think smart opponents will try and have their offense go through Luka because that will tire him out more so of course the Mavs need to have a defensive solution to that! I also think it's ridiculous to expect much more from Luka, he is a certain type of player and his focus is offense; the defensive side is gonna have to be on the others. Maybe Klay can teach Luka some discipline and tricks for perimeter defense! :) Luka doesn't need to be a chase down blocker but just improve a little more lateral movement maybe.
When people insist he was not _very_ injured heading into the finals, I'm usually quick to remind them the last team that refused to double or blitz a healthy Luka for close to an entire game was the Hawks on jan 24th, LOL. Sure, Celtics are a WAY better defensive team and would never have allowed even 50+ points without taking effective action -- the ultimate proof of how badly injured he was is precisely the fact they actually _didn't need_ to.
There's just so much you can do when you're dragging yourself around and your teammates are choking on offense, so it's REALLY unfair to blame the fiasco on his defense in particular. Also, he did play good enough D in previous series when they absolutely needed it, but playing through injuries makes them pile up and escalate; finals are the last of 4 series, plus it was against a superteam. Luka's so good people hold him against impossible standards just so they can claim he failed.
@@SDesWriterreally meaningless.Deflecting and stealing the ball ...just meaningless.% of player going pass luka ....meaningless because you have a narrative...smart😊
@@RobMoreno-mw5uq yes, defensive statistics are meaningless. People are rated high in defensive statistics who are bad defensive players and great defensive players are ranked low by the statistics. The way they’re determined makes them meaningless and if you knew anything about the game you would understand.
Ask yourself if a player loses his defensive assignments and that offensive players scores on his teammates who is trying to help, which player gets the negative points against his defensive rating? Once you have the answer to that question, you can stop bothering me about a meaningless statistic. The eye test and opinions of other players are the only meaningful defenses statistic.
You're high AF if you think Boston "exposed" his defense. Boston averaged 101ppg (20 below their season average), and Tatum & Brown (The two guys exposing Luka) scored 23 & 21 respectively. Meanwhile, Boston (considered the best defensive team in the league) "held" an injured Luka to 29/10/6 (so Tatum and Brown combined outscored him by 14 points). Luka's defense was fine. He had a sprained knee, so quicker players went around him, but Dallas' defense held and they forced 3pt shots with a hand in people's faces which led to Boston shooting 33% from the 3pt line and most of their problems scoring.
The series ended with Boston outscoring Dallas 508 - 496. 2 of the 4 wins were by 7 (with the games being down to a 1 possession under 2 minutes). If the starting SF had been able to score more than 7ppg (while being dared to shoot by Boston giving them open looks), Dallas could have won either or both close games. The 1st game was out of reach due to the 1st quarter surge with Porzingas on the court. In the second game, he made no difference before he was injured (most likely on a free throw where he and Lively bumped knees) so there's no reason to believe his absence caused a large falloff for the Celtics. The series was all about Jones (7ppg), Washington (11ppg), Gafford (8ppg), Lively (6ppg), and everyone else being worse. To complete the shitshow, Kidd chose the Finals as the time to hide Green, Exum, and Hardy on the bench, despite them having the best shooting numbers of anyone not named "Doncic" (or the centers, who scored all but 3 of their points on dunks). Defense was just the media and casuals (Luka haters) way of diminishing what he can and had done. The only player in recent memory who played the entire playoffs severely injured for his team, and was penalized for it despite leading all teams in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Fuck anyone complaining about his defense. You don't know anything about basketball.
Well put. Starting to truly believe that people aren't looking at basketball plays. Just basketball highlights.
The Mavs need Luka to be closer to 100% healthy going into the Playoffs this season. He gutted it out and performed well enough, but he wasn't moving like he had been in February and March of that year.
I think the Mavs will be alright
👀👀
I feel like unless people have watched the mavs really all season but also the playoff run they don’t realize the impact kyrie has. The playoff run was great and still very underrated.
We lost the finals because of offense. You can’t expect Luka to carry the entire offensive load AND get back on defense. Luka defends just fine when he’s not exhausting himself on the offensive end.
People were expecting him to get back and play defense while he was hurt very badly. Any Medical staff would’ve slide lined there star player for a minimum of two weeks, in Luka’s case he completely refused and kept playing, gritting his teeth fighting through the pain. It’s truly remarkable he was even able to slide his feet at all with busted up bloodied knees.
I'm excited for the season to start. They definitely got better on paper lets see how they jell. Losing DJJ tough but replacing him with Naji great.
It is a minus in the athleticism department but other than that Naji and play great defense
@basketballreach not quite when it comes to Naji he's actually a lot better than DJJ offensively
I think the biggest worry is that DJ was replaced by Klay. Kidd is going to have to figure out rotations to where we aren’t at a defensive loss in the starting lineup. Maybe Kyrie gets pulled on the first dead ball or something.
I will not be surprised if Luka drops beneath 30 ppg -- with a reasonable usage rate for the first time since his rookie season --, leads the league in assists and maybe averages a triple double. That's what I'm looking forward to upon adding Klay and re-signing Dinwiddie.
If Luka stays healthy, Lively takes a significant offensive leap (not necessarily a huge one) and PJ improves his 3pt shooting to a steady 36% with some 40% from the corner, then it should be lights out, at least in the West.
Mavs will have a monster season. Detractors will be surprised
mavs improved and became alot deeper as a team
Every starter on Boston are star players and even there supporting cast is good
It’s just weird bcuz this is the most rounded good players on a team ever it was crazy just seeing a year ago everyone thinking it’s just a duo and comparing the duo to Luka and kyrie then u look at all the other players and realize Boston ain’t going anywhere unless injuries happen
Even with injuries, it's so deep that their second unit is legitimately a playoff team...
You can live with Luka’s defense. All he need is scoring support from kyrie and his teammates. Kyrie was out of his self in the finals.
Dallas was the second best Team last season. That is great
🔥🔥🔥🫡🫡🫡🫡
lively is a dunk and defense guy, he don't rly have a refined iso ball skills.If he develops a 3 point ball that is different. His minutes are perfect splitting with gaf imo.
He showed GREAT flashes of being much more than that. And knowing he has top class attitude and is a smart dude, his ceiling today with Luka looks reeeeally high.
Mavs are gonna be unstoppable this season!
Its ridiculous to blame the loss on luka. The rest of the team where throwing bricks even kyrie was mediocre on the finals. Now with klay things could get bette.
2:40 Said in 2024: “With the Mavericks back in the Finalsnfor the first time since 2022…”
You realise that means they missed one year in the Conference Finals right? They’ve played in the WC Finals twice in three years 😂
Nice to NOT mention PJ Washington shooting 47% from 3 and averaging more points than Kyrie in the thunder series, which clearly is the everyday performance for him.
It's also not everyday that PJ is left that wide open, that consistently. The Thunder chose to not even attempt to closeout on wide open Threes when PJ was shooting from the corner, and they paid the price for it. Those were practice shots, and most NBA players can hit a pretty decent percentage from 3PT with nobody guarding them.
Do you just maybe think it was because thunder’s gameplan was to double team and blitz Kyrie for the entire series?🤔, Kyrie sacrificed his production that series and was a good playmaker and passer that series and he put the thunder defense in scrambling situations and constantly had them in rotation.
Luka played great defense the majority of the playoffs!?! Bad Coaching is the only channel that looked at every game. All the other channels and pundits just went with the same old narrative!!!
Luka 's level is not the question. This dude is the best player in the world and it is hardly close. Both of his competitors have a fatal flaw:
1. Jokic is a center and is limited in ball handling which requires him to have a murray who can close the really tight games for him.
2. Giannis is already a legend, but his bag and his shot hold him back. It is what it is. Build that wall and hope it works.
Luka doesn't have any of these issues. He has not even entered his prime yet and ever since his second season it was clear that it is his league, and people are just waiting to admit it. If they are healthy this season, nobody can beat them in the playoffs.
Isolation play of Dallas doesnt win against Celtics... Celtics the best tree point shooting team in nba,, they just need to play good ball movements to be able to execute good offence...Dallas offence rellies on luka or kyre's isolation play...but no match for Celtics..
With a full off season with Gafford, Washington and now Klay Thompson they would put to together a better offensive game plan
There's so many great players in nba that never to have championship... Including STEVE NASH,, REGGIE MILLER, CHARLES BARKLEY, CHRIS PAUL, PAUL GEORGE, JAMES HARDEN,, RUSSEL WESTBROOK...WHAT DO YOU THINK THE REASON WHY THESE GREAT PLAYERS DIDNT WON CHAMPIONSHIP?
Dude... Dallas created more open 3's then the Celtics in the finals, but shot them under 20% (not counting the blowout win). That was the by far biggest problem. Not to mention that Kyrie was completely off in the 3 Boston games. But that wasnt because of the Boston defense or Dallas gameplan... it was in Kyries head. If he gets his head right playing in Boston, this series wouldve looked WAY different as well.
Sorry, but its clear you dont know much about basketball. Cause yes Boston won this fair and square. But Iso offense had nothing to do with it. Cause its also true that everyone on Dallas played well under their normal average, and the Boston defense wasnt the main reason why. Luka was injured, Kyrie had a mental blockade and the role players werent hitting anything from 3. Now they added a 3P sniper who will change how Boston can defend. They sagged off of DJJ to crowd the paint and stop the Luka/Kyrie and Lively/Gafford P&R. Will they be able to do the same with Thompson being out there instead of DJJ taking 6-9 3's per game?
@@SurprisedAlpineSkiing-fg5mo Mostly running into all time Super teams, bad injury luck, or just being stuck on a team that wasnt good enough... whats your point?
The Celtics just have too many good and versatile players that can shoot, defend, and create. Dallas closed the gap a little with their off-season moves, but only time will tell if it will be enough. Luka also wasn't able to play at his MVP level due to injuries... if he's closer to 100% for the playoffs in this coming season then that also helps to close the gap a little more.
the Mavs are likely to win it all in 2025, everyone underestimates them
the nba just want the celtics to win the championship,, that why that siries is a one sided for the celtics
Idk about that tbh 😭😭
We should get rid of conference division in playoffs. How is it fair for Mavericks to had to get past 3 of the top 5 best teams of the season meanwhile Boston faced zero top 5 ranking teams. Getting tired of this east conference beach walks every year when 90% of best players are in the west. The west team will always be more banged up coming into the finals
Imagine if Luka was healthy at 100%
Mavs lost the finnals cuz there was no offense but Luka
Mavs lost because they ran into the better team the narrative Luka carries the mavs is ridiculous mavs have a good team it was a massacre on the west Celtics are a different beast
Interesting that you didn't watch the finals but the NBA media's coverage.The reason Mavs lost was Luka's defense? Why ain't you talking about Mavs offense in the finals? Especially Kyrie's
I don't disagree with anything you said but I just wanna make the point luka got knocked out in the first round of the play offs by the clippers. Getting over that hump is only a positive but let's be fair the clippers roughed him up bad and he never looked himself after that'll series he had blood pouring out of his knees and his numbers were well below average. He hobbled into the final and the celtics were fresh and a bad match up. I can only hope the players we brought in are able to improve the team but I'm not convinced
Better and more mature Luka
Katlyn Fork
every game Boston won in the finals had been blow out so saying Dallas could have won with better Luka is just beyond stupid because difference in quality between these two teams had been obvious especially with role players.
Tatum didn`t have great series also so using this "with better Luka Dallas could have won" we can use in Tatum case also and they were playing without Porzingis what is even worst for Dallas.
People like you make videos to feel smarter but in reality watching this is just wasting time
the mavs had no chance against boston. boston shut down mavs defensively.... too good
Not really, it was just mavs not being able to hit a shot for their life... Except luka
5th like!
Thanks Man! 🔥🔥
@@basketballreach I love ur vids, and am a big Mavs fan!
Imagine if Luka actually played any defense… but then again he’s white. Other than Caruso you can’t name one that is good on that end. Not athletic enough
Still skilled than most of black players. And you had actually watched some basketball games, you would have found out that Luka is actually a positive defender
awfull video my dude😂😂😂
Dallas Overrated, They Got Lucky They Made It All The Way To The Finals, No Real Offense On That Team Outside Of Luka And Kyrie, Klay Is A Hit Or Miss With His Current Form. Grimes, Marshall,Hardy Are Good But Won’t Play More Then 20 Mins A Game Off The Bench
youtube wont stop recomending me your videos jesus christ im watching one are you happy now?